Viewed from another planet, Earth would appear bright and bluish in colour. In latitudinal belts, swirling white cloud patterns of midlatitude and tropical storms can be seen. The polar regions would appear white because of ice, the oceans a dark blue-black, the deserts a tawny beige, and forests and jungles a vibrant green.
What does Earth look like?
What did Ferdinand Magellan discover?
In 1520 Ferdinand Magellan discovered the channel linking the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, between the mainland tip of South America and Tierra del Fuego island. Named after him, the Strait of Magellan was an important sailing-ship route before the building of the Panama Canal in 1914 offered a significantly shorter Atlantic-Pacific passage.
